B&H puts another local camera store out of business (with my help, unfortunately)

In rec.photo.digital.slr-systems L.C. wrote:

"Paul J Gans" wrote in message
...
In rec.photo.digital.slr-systems Michael Meissner
wrote:
Paul J Gans writes:

In rec.photo.digital.slr-systems Michael Meissner
wrote:
Charlie Self writes:

On May 26, 1:42?pm, Rita ? Berkowitz ritaberk2O04 @aol.com wrote:
Oliver Costich wrote:
The real culprit in the demise of the local photo store is Ritz
in its
various guises. In south Florida, where there millions of people,
there are about 4 real photo stores and all are more than 25
miles
away (far north or south), if you exclude the Ritz/Wolf ones.

Not really. ?It's all about the bottom line. ?If a store on the
internet or
local has the best price on items I want they get my money. ?It's
very hard
for local (in state) stores to compete with on-line merchants since
the fact
that one can order on-line and not pay any sales tax. ? In most
cases, the
savings alone from this is the dealmaker. ?And my local store is
great, but
they usually don't have the items I want when I want them. ?Of
course, they
could order them, but why when I could do the same and have the
item sitting
in my hands the next business day? ?Local shops are a thing of the
past.

Rita

Not totally. Shipping blurs the line here. Except for very expensive
items, shipping often equals or exceeds the cost of sales tax, which
we're supposed to be paying anyway.

I would expect that sooner or later, the states will succeed in their
quest to
get congress to require internet and mail order vendors to collect
sales
taxes.

I'm not sure. By that time there will be few local
vendors left...

Yes, but the states will be getting their revenue stream. While they
might
argue for the local guy, they are just after what they consider their
share of
all transactions in the state.

I agree, but it won't save the local photo stores.

Mo we will see more ingenious cheating once tax collection starts.


And as someone who lives in rural Saskatchewan, I want to tell everyone that
it the cheapest price is not always the best deal for you.

If no one supports local businesses, there will be none. Have people been
able to calculate the cost of losing local businesses? Is it possible to do
that calculation? There are actual financial costs, but what is the cost of
slowly declining quality of life in smaller centers? What are the
consequences of everyone travelling vast distances for every service and
product they need?

Cheap goods can cost a lot.

Yes they can. Don't take my reporting on what I think
will happen as meaning that I am necessarily happy with
it. But that sort of discussion is for another newsgroup.

--
--- Paul J. Gans

On Fri, 1 Jun 2007 06:51:35 -0600, "L.C."
wrote:


"Paul J Gans" wrote in message
...
In rec.photo.digital.slr-systems Michael Meissner
wrote:
Paul J Gans writes:

In rec.photo.digital.slr-systems Michael Meissner
wrote:
Charlie Self writes:

On May 26, 1:42?pm, Rita ? Berkowitz ritaberk2O04 @aol.com wrote:
Oliver Costich wrote:
The real culprit in the demise of the local photo store is Ritz
in its
various guises. In south Florida, where there millions of people,
there are about 4 real photo stores and all are more than 25
miles
away (far north or south), if you exclude the Ritz/Wolf ones.

Not really. ?It's all about the bottom line. ?If a store on the
internet or
local has the best price on items I want they get my money. ?It's
very hard
for local (in state) stores to compete with on-line merchants since
the fact
that one can order on-line and not pay any sales tax. ? In most
cases, the
savings alone from this is the dealmaker. ?And my local store is
great, but
they usually don't have the items I want when I want them. ?Of
course, they
could order them, but why when I could do the same and have the
item sitting
in my hands the next business day? ?Local shops are a thing of the
past.

Rita

Not totally. Shipping blurs the line here. Except for very expensive
items, shipping often equals or exceeds the cost of sales tax, which
we're supposed to be paying anyway.

I would expect that sooner or later, the states will succeed in their
quest to
get congress to require internet and mail order vendors to collect
sales
taxes.

I'm not sure. By that time there will be few local
vendors left...

Yes, but the states will be getting their revenue stream. While they
might
argue for the local guy, they are just after what they consider their
share of
all transactions in the state.

I agree, but it won't save the local photo stores.

Mo we will see more ingenious cheating once tax collection starts.


And as someone who lives in rural Saskatchewan, I want to tell everyone that
it the cheapest price is not always the best deal for you.

If no one supports local businesses, there will be none. Have people been
able to calculate the cost of losing local businesses? Is it possible to do
that calculation? There are actual financial costs, but what is the cost of
slowly declining quality of life in smaller centers? What are the
consequences of everyone travelling vast distances for every service and
product they need?

Cheap goods can cost a lot.

L.C.


Not talking about cheap goods, just better prices AND wider product
catalog for the same items, cheap or otherwise. My only local photo
stores (within 25 miles) are Ritz, with high prices and limited
availiability.

"Rita Ä Berkowitz" ritaberk2O04 @aol.com wrote in message
...
L.C. wrote:

And as someone who lives in rural Saskatchewan, I want to tell
everyone that it the cheapest price is not always the best deal for
you.

Location is totally irrelevant!

If no one supports local businesses, there will be none. Have people
been able to calculate the cost of losing local businesses? Is it
possible to do that calculation? There are actual financial costs,
but what is the cost of slowly declining quality of life in smaller
centers? What are the consequences of everyone travelling vast
distances for every service and product they need?

Again, totally irrelevant! Here's a clue. Any business independent of
their location is fully capable of selling and competing on global scale.
There's no reason for any business to fail other than their own laziness,
lack of creativity, and a desire to blame others for self inflicted
failure.

Cheap goods can cost a lot.

Cheap should never be confused with competitively priced.



The only people who think location is irrelevant are those who live in good
locations.

Global competition works for only the very large, or the very, very
specialized.

Supporting local business is in your own interest.

L.C.

"Rita Ä Berkowitz" ritaberk2O04 @aol.com wrote in message
...
L.C. wrote:


Global competition works for only the very large, or the very, very
specialized.

Not true. There's a niche for everyone just as long as they know how to
exploit it.

To some degree this is true but...

The advantage over the bigger guy with the bigger budget and advertising
spend has more options to capitalise on the niche. They also have a bigger
stock to lure the prospective purchaser into p/x'ing their gear for
something else and can also use this as a leverage to get the lowest
purchase price to offer a good s/h price and or a bigger margin.

These days all lines are blurred and the local dealer is as far as your
computer. It's about volume and multi income streams now whereas it was
possible just to have a shop and extend it with mail order. the internet is
that mail order now but with global rather than regional or national reach.

Duncan

Michael wrote:

Not every one gets stellar service from UPS and.Bob said he was declaring
upon re-entry into Canada.

Point is that FedEx charge a flat fee (about $5 - $10) for customs
clearance regardless of the value of the item. UPS charge a value
proportionate fee, which is hogwash (the amount of work is the same).
The workaround with UPS is to go to the UPS entry point and pick up the
item and do the paperwork yourself. OTOH, the point of courier service
is to have --- service. UPS are total asswipes. I've had more grief
shipping UPS than I care to recount. I've never had a problem with FedEx.

FedEx is what UPS dream about achieving in service.



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Recently, Alan Browne posted:

FedEx is what UPS dream about achieving in service.

FedEx has wredked 3 of my expensive electronic items, and it was a real
hassle to get them to pay up. As a result, about the only thing I'll send
via FedEx is paper, and then only if it can't be damaged by wrinkling.
OTOH, I've never had a problem with hardware shipped via UPS. YMMV.

Neil

One thing that I've noticed is a huge difference between traditional
FedEx and FedEx Ground. The latter was previously a separate company,
which was bought out - and is still run like one.

I shipped a turntable FedEx Ground at the buyers request; it arrived
with the box somewhat battered, and with the turntable visually OK -
but inoperable.

What followed was months of lies and deceit:
"The recipient refused to let us inspect it."
"The recipient is a repair service, it was already broken."
"You waited to long to file."
"You didn't purchase insurance."
"It wasn't in the original box."

NONE of which were true; in the end, they stopped making excuses and
just flat out refused to pay. And invited me to sue them. Fortunately,
I sent it through a pack-and-ship, and THEIR insurance made good on it.

That was my second FedEx Ground shipment, and my second problem.
Nevermore.

By comparison, I've never had trouble with regular FedEx, and though
UPS is slow and balky, they've always straightened things out
eventually.